"Captain America Must Die": How a Super Soldier Became a Patriot

Author Biography Mackenna is a fourth-year history major, with minors in German and Asian studies. Her research interests include the history of popular culture and the Cold War. In her free time, she enjoys reading comic books and binge-watch- ing Survivor and The Amazing Race. After graduation, she hopes to work as an editor in the comic book industry. Johnson “Captain America Must Die”: How a Super Soldier Became a Patriot by Mackenna Johnson Abstract This paper analyzes the character of Captain America in the midst of the Cold War, and particularly asks how and to what extent the character reflects his contemporary sociopolitical atmosphere. To achieve this end, I first establish the vital role of popular culture, especially comic books, in modern historical research. I then discuss the history of Captain America, the sociopolitical situation of the 1970s, and, finally, introduce the Secret Empire and Nomad storylines of the 1970s, which form the basis of my argument. The most valuable primary source in this paper is not the comic books themselves, but an interview that I recently conducted with the former author of Captain America, Steve Englehart. Ulti- mately, I argue that Englehart redefined Captain America’s version of patriotism and created a character that was more effectively able to reflect on and respond to social and political events. In bold letters: “The Death of a Hero,” next to the lifeless figure of Cap- tain America tied to a chimney, slumped and bleeding. Two figures stood behind the slain man with bowed heads, one African American with high- tech wings strapped to his back, the other blonde-haired and clad mostly in black. This was the cover of Captain America #183, published on March 10, 1975, 34 years to the month after Steve Rogers debuted as America’s star-spangled, Hitler-punching superhero.1 But for Rogers, gone were the days of patrolling New York City with his trusty sidekick Bucky. Gone was his clear bad versus good mentality. In fact, it was not even Steve Rogers bound and wearing the Captain America costume he had once donned; instead, he stood in the background as Nomad: The Man Without a Country. 1 Steve Englehart, Captain America #183, ed. Len Wein (New York: Marvel Comics, 1975), 18. See Appendix D. 81 The Forum This was the last issue in a saga of betrayal and disillusionment with the American government, a saga Steve Englehart wrote that stretched beyond the fictional world of comic books. In the early 1970s, America’s political cli- mate was fraught with scandal and anxiety. Between the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, conflict loomed large in the news. Because of this, comic book readers could no longer relate to a character that blindly and unthinkingly followed the government’s command. This paper will explore how Steve Englehart utilized the Captain America comics in the 1970s as a platform for himself and for his readers to come to terms with their political and social frustrations. I will argue that Steve Englehart redefined Captain America’s brand of patriotism to fully encompass the sentiments of the American people for the first time. Since DC Comics published the first Superman comic in the late 1930s, comic books have remained an ever-present force in American popular culture. Between Marvel and DC, the two powerhouses in comic book publica- tion, there are at minimum five or six million pages of literature, and this increases by thousands of pages every month.2 Because comics scholarship is a recent field, most research focuses on comic books as a whole, leaving plenty of room for new voices to focus on smaller pieces of this monomyth. One common theme among scholars is the accurate representation of comic books as a modern mythology, giving insight into contemporary American values just as the Greek myths did in their time. It is necessary here to clarify that, though comic books exist around the world, America is by far the largest producer of comic books, meaning they are inherently a product of American culture.3 Scholarly works such as Marco Arnaudo’s The Myth of the Superhero give valuable insight into the ties between comics and society. However, such general overviews can only be superficial, for it is the individual characters and story arcs that truly reveal how thoroughly comic books and society intertwine. 2 Marco Arnaudo, The Myth of the Superhero, trans. Jamie Richards (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 4. 3 Ibid, 63. 82 Johnson There are, however, works that focus more specifically on particular characters, such as J. Richard Stevens’ book Captain America, Masculinity, and Vio- lence, as well as his article “Let’s Rap with Cap” from The Journal of Popular Culture. His works analyze the development of Captain America as a character throughout his existence, since 1941. Though Stevens is the author who focuses most notably on Captain America, his work is still broad and only briefly mentions the comic events this paper will address. Therefore, his work is necessary to understand the character and its history, but it does not sufficiently discuss Steve Englehart’s highly significant Secret Empire and Nomad storylines. Around the time in which Englehart authored Captain America, there was a shift in attitude toward greater readership and increased respect for comics. In fact, statistics from 1971 showed that as many as 60% of eighteen-year- olds and 94% of eleven- to fourteen-year-olds read comics regularly.4 This likely resulted, at least indirectly, due to a change in the Comics Code. The Comics Code, which the Comics Magazine Association of America devel- oped in October of 1954, mandated that comics not show excessive violence or, most significantly for this essay, represent the government unfavorably. Part A, section 3 of the Comics Code stated, “Policemen, judges, Govern- ment officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.”5 However, in 1971, the Comics Magazine Association of America loosened this regulation by adding, “If any of these is depicted committing an illegal act, it must be declared as an exceptional case and that the culprit pay the legal price.”6 This revision effectively created a loophole in the code that ultimately allowed Steve Englehart to cast a critical lens on the United States government during his Captain America authorship. 4 Ibid, 167. 5 “The Comics Code of 1954,” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, accessed May 15, 2017, http://cbldf.org/the-comics-code-of-1954/ 6 “Comics Code Revision of 1971,” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, accessed May 15, 2017, http://cbldf.org/comics-code-revision-of-1971/ 83 The Forum Initially, Captain America Comics found success when they debuted in 1941, the first cover boldly displaying the superhero punching Adolf Hitler.7 After World War II ended, though, the character lost his relevance as he continued to fight the Nazis. As a result, Marvel discontinued the series. Almost twenty years later, Captain America reappeared and explained that a freak accident trapped him in ice, holding him in suspended animation until 1964.8 From that point on, authors used the character as a means of juxtaposing Cap’s patriotic values with significant events such as the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests. Instead of a character with agency, Captain America became a one-dimensional tool that authors tried to mold to fit the zeitgeist. However, this approach often fell flat, until Englehart became the author of Captain America in 1972. To understand the unique situation that made Steve Englehart a successful Captain America author, it is necessary to explain the period of time just before he took over. In the years during which sales of the comic declined, readers wrote letters to the editor to debate their views of patriotism. J. Richard Stevens wrote on this topic extensively in his article “Let’s Rap with Cap.” The Bullpen, the term for Marvel’s editors, authors, etc. working behind the scenes, published letters from readers, similar to letters to the editor in newspapers and magazines. In the late 1960s, fans began to write to the Bullpen to share their opinions regarding Captain America’s character and whether it fit with their ideas of patriotism. These letters revealed their authors’ sentiments regarding the US government in the midst of the Vietnam War and just before Watergate. Written by everyone from college students to members of the military, the letters operated in Captain America as a forum for readers to discuss two starkly contrasting views of patrio- 7 Jack Kirby, Captain America Comics #1, ed. Joe Simon (New York: Timely Publica- tions). See Appendix A. 8 Stan Lee, Avengers #4, ed. Stan Lee (New York: Marvel Comics), 7. 84 Johnson tism.9 On the one hand, liberals argued that Captain America should involve himself in the political and social controversies of the time; on the other, conservatives maintained that the patriotic thing to do was refrain from criticizing the government.10 The vastly different views for and against the Vietnam War, one of the most controversial wars in American history, spurred on the extreme representations of either side. Seeking to please their readers, comic authors altered Captain America’s character over time, involving him in student protests and discussions on civil rights, but were unsuccessful in making the character believable. Perhaps this was because tensions were too high, or because they tried to give voice to the side that they believed had more support. Whatever the case, over the course of this debate, Captain America became one of Marvel’s worst-selling comics.

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